Conventionally, a printed circuit board, which is mainly utilized in electric equipment, has been made of fiberglass and epoxy resin, which is a sort of thermosetting resin. A method for recycling the printed circuit board according to a prior art has been available only for retrieving and recycling printed metallic material composing a printed circuit wiring. Therefore, after separating and retrieving the printed metallic material, residual insulating material and so on are only available for thermal energy by incinerating them, or bury in the ground as a waste.
In the above prior art, the printed metallic material is retrieved. However, the insulating material such as thermoplastic resin and the like composing a board material are not retrieved as reusable material, and this residual insulating material causes an increase of the waste. Therefore, this is an important requirement to reduce emission of the waste and carbon dioxide for the preservation of the environment on the earth. Also it is an important requirement to utilize the resources on the earth efficiently. In the present state of affairs, not only a manufacturer of a printed circuit board but also a manufacturer of electric equipment, which utilizes a printed circuit board, has a long-pending requirement to establish a method for recycling a printed circuit board so as to retrieve and to recycle both the printed metallic material and the insulating material.
Considering the above requirements, the object of the present invention is to provide a method and apparatus of recycling a printed circuit board so that both a printed metallic material and an insulating material composing a printed circuit board are separated and retrieved, and that those retrieved materials are available for recycling.